Gallery: How Christo Built His Latest Work: Two Miles of Floating Walkway
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Christo's new project, the “Floating Piers” is open until July 3. It comprises two miles of marigold-yellow walkways bobbing atop the waters of Lake Iseo, a small lake in northern Italy, connecting the waterside town of Sulzano with two small islands.
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It took 22 months and up to 700 people to build it.
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The pathways are supposed to let visitors feel like they're walking on water. Sulzano expects about 40,000 people a day to visit.
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Marinas often use temporary, floating piers; a common technique involves propping them atop styrofoam cubes. “We discovered very soon that this cube system was perfect for us,” says Wolfgang Volz, Christo’s project manager.
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Christo's team had to build their own cubes. Then he, Volz, and a few dozen workers started connecting the cubes into 50- by 330-foot sections. They attached the cubes with giant screws, right on the water, in a corralled section of Lake Iseo, which you can see here.
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The Floating Piers use 220,000 cubes in total.
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The fabric that covers the styrofoam is an absorbent nylon that Christo sources from a German supplier.
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It’s not waterproof—people would have slipped in puddles, a non-starter for a walk-on-water art installation with no guardrails.
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That porousness also lends the pathways some color-changing charm: “When it’s wet it’s almost red,” Volz says. “And when it’s dry it’s totally yellow, almost lemonade yellow.”
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Divers helped to both secure the floating cubes to concrete anchor weights, and the fabric to the walkway, with extra-strength carabiners.
